Killware, as the name implies, is a form of cyberattack that is constructed for the sole purpose of killing people. The majority of people first heard this term a few days ago when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that the next big cybersecurity threat will be killware.
Just as ransomware becomes an increasingly dangerous threat publicly, a "cyber incident", dubbed later as a killware attack, was linked to a hack on a water treatment facility in Florida which attempted to contaminate the water that was to be distributed to residents.
Killware is no joke, and unfortunately it seems to be our near future. Large hacker collectives are no longer just able to target infrastructure for financial gain, now they have the ability and the resources to target human lives.
Mayorkas identified killware as a "serious risk" in an interview with USA Today last Tuesday, citing the Florida attack which occurred in February. He also urged authorities to treat cybersecurity as more of a matter of priority.